§ 42
Peter had an appointment to meet Nell on a
street corner at eleven o'clock that same night, and when she stepped
off the street-car, Peter saw that she was carrying a suit-case. "Did
you get your job done?" she asked quickly, and when Peter answered in
the affirmative, she added: "Here's your bomb!"
Peter's jaw fell. He looked so frightened that she hastened to
reassure him. It wouldn't go off; it was only the makings of a bomb,
three sticks of dynamite and some fuses and part of a clock. The
dynamite was wrapped carefully, and there was no chance of its
exploding — if he didn't drop it! But Peter wasn't much consoled. He had
had no idea that Nell would go so far, or that he would actually have to
handle dynamite. He wondered where and how she had got it, and wished to
God he was out of this thing.
But it was too late now, of course. Said Nell: "You've got to get
this suit-case into the headquarters, and you've got to get it there
without anybody seeing you. They'll be shut up pretty soon, won't they?"
"We locked up when we left," said Peter.
"And who has the key?"
"Grady, the secretary."
"There's no way you can get it?"
"I can get into the room," said Peter, quickly. "There's a fire
escape, and the window isn't tight. Some of us that know about it have
got in that way when the place was locked."
"All right," said Nell. "We'll wait a bit; we mustn't
take chances of anyone coming back."
They started to stroll along the street, Nell still carrying
the suit-case, as if distrusting the state of Peter's nerves,
Meantime she explained, "I've got two pieces of paper that we've got to
plant in the room. One's to be torn up and thrown into the trash-basket.
It's supposed to be part of a letter about some big plan that's to be
pulled off, and it's signed `Mac.' That's for McCormick, of course. I
had to type it, not having any sample of his handwriting. The other
piece is a drawing; there's no marks to show what it is, but of course
the police'll soon find out. It's a plan of old Ackerman's home, and
there's a cross mark showing his sleeping-porch. Now, what we want to do
is to fix this on McCormick. Is there anything in the room that belongs
to him?"
Peter thought, and at last remembered that in the bookshelves
were some books which had been donated by McCormick, and which had his
name written in. That was the trick! exclaimed Nell. They would hide the
paper in one of these books, and when the police made a thorough search
they would find it. Nell asked what was in these books, and Peter
thought, and remembered that one was a book on sabotage. "Put the paper
in that," said Nell. "When the police find it, the newspapers'll print
the whole book."
Peter's knees were trembling so that he could hardly walk, but he
kept reminding himself that he was a "he-man," a 100% American, and that
in these times of war every patriot must do his part. His part was to
help rid the country of these Reds, and he must not flinch. They made
their way to the old building in which the I. W. W. headquarters were
located, and Peter climbed up on the fence and swung over to the
fire-escape, and Nell very carefully handed the suit-case to him, and
Peter opened the damaged window and slipped into the room.
He knew just where the cupboard was, and quickly stored the
suit-case in the corner, and piled some odds and ends of stuff in front
of it, and threw an old piece of canvas over it. He took out of his
right-hand pocket a typewritten letter, and tore it into small pieces
and threw them into the trash-basket. Then he took out of his left-hand
pocket the other paper, with the drawing of Ackerman's house. He went to
the bookcase and with shaking fingers struck a match, picked out the
little redbound book entitled "Sabotage," and stuck the paper inside,
and put the book back in place. Then he climbed out on the fire-escape
and dropped to the ground, jumped over the fence, and hurried down the
alley to where Nell was waiting for him.
"It's for my country!" he was whispering to himself.
